I am blown away by the coverage of my announcement that I’ve left Visual Sciences to form my own company. I’m so behind on thanking people who have written about the news I wanted to summarize their thoughts and thank everyone en masse.

E-consultancy in the UK wishes me luck and says that my decision to help companies understand the process of doing web analytics is “bang on” which I’m pretty sure is a compliment. Thanks to Richard Maven for reaching out to me after the press release and I look forward to hopefully meeting the e-consultancy crew when I fly to Europe later this month.

Gary Angel from SEMphonic is a good friend but I was still humbled by his declaration that my announcement was “the biggest news out of Emetrics” Gary says that “[Eric is] consistently thoughtful. His opinions are rooted in real-world work. And see seems remarkably able to deal with web analytics at every level very successfully: from introducing web analytics to marketers to working hands-on with real analysts to helping senior executives get a handle on web measurement process. When you can do that and not get on the nerves of people like me, you’re doing something pretty special.” Coming from someone I respect as much as Gary this means a huge amount to me.

My good friend Judah Phillips (who blogs here at Analytics Demystified) says I have achieved self-actualization. Judah also bought me dinner on Tuesday night after I had been celebrating for several hours over vodka drinks so thanks to both Judah and his fiance.

Jacques Warren, who also recently left the comfort of his day job to become a consultant in Canada and who clearly read the copy on my web site and understands what I’m doing. Jacques comments “Do you realize? This guy is going to make a living telling companies how to organize Web Analytics” to which I can only say, “Yes.”

Anil Batra, who looks nothing like that lousy little picture of him on his blog, had an inkling of my intentions but was surprised by the timing. Thanks for the encouragement, Anil!

My good friend René Dechamps Otamendi from Belgium who has a good summary of my business model and who captured an interesting photo of my singing happy birthday to Aurelie Pols (his wife, and a member of my company’s advisory board.) I consider Rene and Aurelie two of the nicest people I know and am excited about the opportunity to work more closely with them in the future.

Marshall Sponder says he’s listening to me when I give him advice, which is good to hear, since he’s now on a WAA board with $250,000 in cash burning a hole in their pocket. Hey Marshall, you should buy a copy of my book for everyone in the organization. 😉

Phew. And that’s just what I culled out of my feeds this morning. I sincerely want to thank all of the bloggers I mention here and anyone I forgot. I’m hugely excited about having the freedom to explore other ways I can help the web analytics and broader business community and hope all of you will keep reading this blog and provide feedback as you think I need it.

Eric T. Peterson is author of Web Analytics Demystified, Web Site Measurement Hacks and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators and a long-time member of the web analytics community. He frequently presents on web analytics and is often cited in articles about digital measurement. In the past Mr. Peterson has worked with well-known brands like Microsoft, HP, Cisco, Best Buy, Disney, LEGO, CBS and CBS News, and ESPN. More recently, Mr. Peterson has founded The Analysis Exchange, a completely new way to gain experience with digital measurement.
As an employee of Analytics Demystified Eric is a member of the Digital Analytics Association (DAA), an Adobe Business Partner, and a Google Analytics Certified Partner.